The Life of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France eBook

The flight of the princesses, however, did not, as
it turned out, cause any inconvenience to the king
or queen, though it did endanger themselves; for,
though they were furnished with passports, the municipal
authorities tried to stop them at Moret; and at Arnay-le-Duc
the mob unharnessed their horses and detained them
by force They appealed to the Assembly by letter;
Alexander Lameth, on this occasion uniting with the
most violent Jacobins, was not ashamed to move that
orders should be dispatched to send them back to Paris:
but the body of the Assembly had not yet descended
to the baseness of warring with women; and Mirabeau,
who treated the proposal as ridiculous, and overwhelmed
the mover with his wit, had no difficulty in procuring
an order that the fugitives, “two princesses
of advanced age and timorous consciences,” as
he called them, should be allowed to proceed on their
journey.

CHAPTER XXX.

The Mob attacks the Castle at Vincennes.—­La Fayette saves it.—­He insults
the Nobles who come to protect the King.—­Perverseness of the Count
d’Artois and the Emigrants.—­Mirabeau dies.—­General Sorrow for his
death.—­He would probably not have been able to arrest the Revolution.—­
The Mob prevent the King from visiting St. Cloud.—­The Assembly passes a
Vote to forbid him to go more than twenty Leagues from Paris.

The mob, however, was more completely under Jacobin
influence; and, at the end of February, Santerre collected
his ruffians for a fresh tumult; the object now being
the destruction of the old castle of Vincennes, which
for some time had been almost unoccupied. La
Fayette, whose object at this time was apparently
regulated by a desire to make all parties acknowledge
his influence, in a momentary fit of resolution marched
a body of his National Guard down to save the old
fortress, in which he succeeded, though not without
much difficulty, and even some danger. He found
he had greatly miscalculated his influence, not only
over the populace, but over his own soldiers.
The rioters fired on him, wounding some of his staff;
and at first many of the soldiers refused to act against
the people. His officers, however, full of indignation,
easily quelled the spirit of mutiny; and, when subordination
was restored, proposed to the general to follow up
his success by marching at once back into the city
and seizing the Jacobin demagogues who had caused
the riot. There was little doubt that the great
majority of the citizens, in their fear of Santerre
and his gang, would joyfully have supported him in
such a measure; but La Fayette’s resolution
was never very consistent nor very durable. He
became terrified, not, indeed, so much at the risk
to his life which he had incurred, as at the symptom
that to resist the mob might cost him his popularity;
and to appease those whom he might have offended, he
proceeded to insult the king. A report had got
abroad, which was not improbably well founded, that